WHAT IS IT?

WHY WE’RE TESTING IT

With so many new entrants lobbing into the Aussie market since the current-generation Sportage first launched back in 2016, Kia has gifted the Sportage a facelift. Beyond some new body plastics, there are also meaningful upgrades to the suspension, driveline and in-cabin fit-out, all of which have a positive impact on the Sportage’s appeal.

MAIN RIVALS

THE WHEELS VERDICT

This is a case of incremental improvements done right. The changes are subtle from the outside but provide genuine lifts in liveability and driveability once you hop behind the wheel. The only downside is some upward movement in pricing.

Ergo, it’s applied one of the most subtle facelifts to its two-year-old Sportage in a bid to impart some masculine charm. Air dams enlarge, bumper contours become sharper and wheel designs get more extroverted, but there are no sheet metal alterations. To the layman, the differences will be pretty hard to spot. Do they result in a more gender-neutral look? To be honest, the pre-update Sportage wasn’t overtly feminine, to begin with.

An electric park brake is added from SLi grade and up, bringing with it a reshaped and less cluttered centre console, but the rest of the interior is virtually untouched. Same comfy front seats, spacious (albeit flat-cushioned) rear seats, same generous 466-litre seats-up cargo capacity.

And that’s a little bit of a shame because our main criticism of the Sportage line-up concerns the lack of refinement and economy in the range’s mainstay motor, the 2.0-litre petrol. Its corporate cousin the Hyundai Tucson has moved to a direct-injected 2.0L with more power and torque, but the Sportage continues to live in the past.

If there’s one blot on the updated Sportage’s scorecard, it’s in the column marked ‘pricing’. AEB is now standard on all variants and so is lane-keep assist, but tweaks to the car’s spec levels see four-figure price rises across the board. The biggest mover is the SLi diesel, which jumps $2500, while even the base Si rises by $1000. It’s still a sharp buy, but just not as much of a bargain as it used to be.

The updated Sportage might look like ‘business as usual’ from the outside, but it’s a different story from the driver’s seat, the experience of which goes a long way toward justifying a higher price of entry.